1.Everyone shall possess the right to freely express and publicise his thoughts in words, images or by any other means, as well as the right to inform others, inform himself and be informed without hindrance or discrimination
2.Exercise of the said rights shall not be hindered or limited by any type or form of censorship
Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, Article 37.º

Madeleine: Portuguese Police Under Pressure

A few minutes after the return to Faro of the team of experts that the PJ had sent to Leicester, Her Majesty's British Ambassador to the Portuguese Republic was already visiting their premises. The presence of the diplomat, that has been confirmed by several journalist, is in direct relation with the Madeleine McCann case and was not asked by the Portuguese Authorities. The ambassador has stayed half an hour with the police.

John Buck - British Ambassador in Portugal in May 2006 - resigns his post on 10/09/07 - shortly after the McCanns are made suspects. John is replaced by Alexander Ellis. Leaves the Diplomatic Services entirely.

Clarence Mitchell-Former BBC journalist turned Head of Media Monitoring on about £70k per annum turned media spokesman for “Team McCann". His profile has been heightened in recent months having been seconded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to act for the specific purpose of "handling media relations related to the Madeleine McCann "disappearance". He was central to the McCann’s liaison with the world’s print and broadcast press and also organised, via the respective British Embassies, the McCann’s campaign visits to the Vatican, Madrid, Berlin, Amsterdam and Rabat.

Sheree Dodd -Former Director of Communications at DTI with responsibility for media handling, stakeholder relations, marketing and e-communications. Led the news and media relations operations at DWP and the Northern Ireland Office, after an extensive career as a political and industrial correspondent on The Mirror newspaper. Her company SC Dodd Comms provides advice and delivers communication solutions to public and private sector clients.Was dispatched to Portugal prior to Clarence Mitchell and followed Alex Woolfall as media representative. Never heard of since.

The UK tabloids have been full of criticism for the alleged mishandling of the Madeleine investigation by the Portuguese police. Journalists from that nation, however, have argued somewhat differently. An article in the Correio da Manha today argues that it was diplomacy from the British Embassy- not police incompetence- which subverted the early investigation, and prevented officers from persuing anything other than the abduction theory favoured by the PTB. The orders, according to the writer in question, came from no less a source than John Buck, the British Ambassador himself; who called the head of the Policia Judiciaria on the night of Madeleine's disappearance to advise on the direction in which the police work should proceed.So why is a British diplomat giving orders to a native chief of police? And who gave the word to John Buck in the first place?'Alípio Ribeiro, national director of PJ, received a call from John Buck, the British ambassador in Portugal, on the night Madeleine disappeared from the Ocean Club, on May 3.Around 11 p.m., approximately two hours after the child's disappearance had been communicated to the police, Alípio Ribeiro had to interrupt a private dinner in order to listen to the diplomat. That phone call was the first sign that the British were very keen on accompanying the PJ’s actions very closely, and in forcing the investigations to follow the abduction theory.“The PJ lost too much time investigating the abduction”, a source connected to the investigation told Correio da Manha. The pressure of the British diplomacy apparently only slowed down after the arrival in Portugal of British police agents who gave support to the redirectioning of the investigation to the possibility of murder. The biological evidence found in the apartment were decisive in the changing the inquiry's direction, or, at least, for the PJ to admit that change publicly.'

“Contradictory statements” and a clear lack of cooperation with Portuguese police raised suspicions about the McCann that were reported to a British Government member by diplomatic staff based in Portugal. The document, classified as confidential, also called the attention to consequences of what was considered “overstepping” the limits and pressing local authorities, resulting from the actions of another local British diplomatic representative. The message asked for confirmation of previous instructions, coming from London, ordering that “full support” was given to the McCann, by all diplomatic representatives in Portugal and British police officers, sent from Leicestershire and Scotland Yard, to follow the investigations of Madeleine’s disappearance. One of the specific instructions stated that the McCann should be always accompanied, either by a diplomatic representative or a police officer, in all contacts with Portuguese police.

Diplomat has warned London about a possible involvement of the McCanns

A document classified as confidential has been sent by a British diplomat in May from Portugal to a high officer of the British Government to suggest for the first time the eventual involvement of the McCann couple in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine. The diplomat explains the "confused statements" concerning the timeline of the Couple and their friends, but also about their discrepancies and their lack of cooperation with the Portuguese Police and he accuses another British diplomat present in Portugal of "exceeding it's own powers and of putting pressure on the local authorities". In the document, the diplomat also asks the confirmation of an order received from London the day before in which it was ordered to give a "total assistance to the McCann couple", indicating that the British citizens must "be accompanied in permanence in their contacts with the Portuguese Police" by a diplomat or an agent of the Police of the United Kingdom. "With the due respect, I wish to mention that our intervention might be badly perceived by the Portuguese Authorities, especially if the eventual involvement of the couple is established. Please confirm with the last information if we should be implicated in this case as it has been required in your precedent message", writes the diplomat. Since the disappearance of Madeleine, the night of May 3, and the phone call of Gerry to Alistair Clark, several British diplomats did intervene to the Portuguese Authorities and the McCann couple: Sheryl Dodd (sent by the government of Tony Blair), Bill Henderson (consul for the Algarve), Celia Edwards (who has accompany the McCanns during the interviews which have conducted to make them formal suspects) and John Buck (Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Portuguese Republic), among others. An interesting detail, Sheryl Dodd has given up his post in the Foreign Office, Bill Henderson has taken his retirement, and the Ambassador John Buck has been dismissed of his duties in Lisbon and is anymore in Portugal.

Secret service, New Scotland Yard, Foreign Office, the British press and others...

“I am a professional of the legal world; I had numerous businesses of disappearing children, girls or boys. The more the child is low in age, more the dealing is delicate but I never saw the political world mingling in the judicial frame like in this one, excuse me if I am going to shock someone, in the frame, I said, of a simple disappearance of a small girl! “- an inspector of police specialized in the affairs of disappearing of person under 18 declared. Since the beginning of this situation, the British Government got involved like never before in an affair of a child disappearance. Journalists were intimidated. They performed body searches in the hotel room of certain of them. So-called "friends" waited for others in front of the entrance of their hotel. I know journalists who went elsewhere to sleep without returning to their hotel room because they were awaited. The editors of British newspapers are victims of pressure, allowing publication only of articles supporting the thesis of the innocence of the parents. These same British journalists have order not to upset the slightest person linked up with the family McCann. So, Paulo Reis, in one of these articles on Digital Gazeta teach us that there is not one single British journalist near the home of David Payne, Matthew Oldfield, Jane Tanner or Charlotte Pennington whereas the latter are in the middle of mystery. On the other hand, close to the house of Michaela, supposedly the ex girlfriend of Murat there are a dozen journalists mounting for one does not know what! The journalists while knowing much more than what they are authorized to publish, do it in a way diverted via the forums. The pressure does not stop there. All the sites speaking about the McCann business are under "monitoring" in it including the site of Association Kidnapped Children. . A monitoring consists of a sophisticated program analyzing what is written on the site as well as the comments of the Net surfers similar to how “the ears of the United States " listen and analyses telephone calls when certain key words are used. For the press barons, the McCann must be innocent whatever the truth is.

A British diplomat warned the Foreign Office of concerns regarding Mad­eleine McCann’s parents, it emerged last night. Doubts about Kate and Gerry McCann were raised almost immediately by an official sent to Praia da Luz due to what he considered to be “inconsistencies” in the couple’s testimonies about the night the four-year-old vanished. The warning was contained in a classified document sent from the Algarve to the Foreign Office days after Madeleine’s disappearance. Details of the letter have been leaked through the British diplomatic mission in Brussels to the respected Belgian newspaper Derniere Heure. The unnamed diplomat voices his concern about the “confused declarations” as to the whereabouts of Kate and Gerry McCann and their friends in the final hours before Madeleine’s disappearance. He also mentions the couple’s “lack of co-operation” with the Portuguese police in the light of instructions from London suggesting consular staff “overstretch their authority and put pressure on the Portuguese authorities”. The document also asks for confirmation of orders sent by the Foreign Office in London the day before, commanding embassy staff to give “all possible assistance to the McCann couple”. Diplomats on the Algarve were told the McCanns had to be “accompanied at all times during any contact with the Portuguese police” by a member of consular staff or by British police officers sent out from the UK. The letter, sent just days after Madeleine disappeared, warns of the risks of siding with the McCanns so completely. Excerpts published in a report by La Derniere Heure quote the diplomat as saying: “With the greatest respect, I would like to make you aware of the risks and implications to our relationship with the Portuguese authorities, if you consider the possible involvement of the couple. “Please confirm to me, in the light of these concerns, that we want to continue to be closely involved in the case as was requested in your previous ­message.” A huge team of diplomats have been involved in the case since Gerry McCann asked the Foreign Office for help. In an unprecedented move, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair despatched special envoy Sheree Dodd, a former Fleet Street journalist, to Portugal to act as a “med­ia liaison officer” for the McCann family. Direct government communications with the McCanns came to an abrupt halt, however, when the couple were made official suspects in the case in September. Portuguese detectives believe it is possible Madeleine died as the result of an accident on May 3 in the family’s holiday apartment and that her parents hid and later disposed of her body with the help of their friends. The couple have always said they had nothing to do with their daughter’s disappearance. The Belgian report says it is highly significant that almost all of the diplomats involved at the outset have now been taken off the case.Special envoy Sheree Dodd has since resigned from the Foreign Office, the British consul in the Algarve Bill Henderson has retired and the British ambassador to Portugal John Buck is no longer in Portugal. Last night the Foreign Office refused to comment on the report.